Hitherto, there have been known two types of systems for obtaining a stereoscopic picture; namely, the different sight stereopsis system which utilizes the principle of stereogram and the three-dimensional image reproduction system which utilizes the priciple of holography. The former system gives images of the same subject from different view points to left and right eyes, respectively. The eyes would be in increasing strain after seeing the picture of this system for 30 minutes or more. Further, since the picture, per se, is not three-dimensionally displayed, a clear stereoscopic picture cannot be shown to a plurality of people at a time without wearing special polarizing glasses. The latter system reproduces rays of light around the subject. This system does not cause so much strain to the eyes but has many problems to be solved to achieve a satisfactory way of taking pictures and to apply them to a moving picture.
The different sight stereopsis system includes glasses-use modes such as stereoscopic video glasses mode, polarizing glasses mode, bichromatic glasses mode and different density glasses mode, and glasses--nonuse modes such as rotation mirror 360.degree.--stereoscopic picture mode. In the stereoscopic video glasses mode, video cameras are located on the right and left sides in front of a subject and the right and left images are alternately displayed on a television field basis. For the picture thus presented to become a stereoscopic picture, each of the right and left images should be viewed by each of the right and left eyes, respectively, through stereoscopic video glasses adapted to alternately shut off the right and left eye sights synchronously with the picture.
The three-dimensional image reproduction system includes modes of superimposing a multiplicity of planes one upon another such as varifocal-mirror-use mode and varying refractive index mode, modes of forming a virtual image (wavefront) such as holography and holographic stereogram, and modes of forming a real image such as integral holography and solid three-dimensional display.
In the conventional different sight stereopsis system for general use wherein special polarizing glasses are placed adjacent to the eyes of a viewer to provide him/her with a stereoscopic picture, there have been problems, such as troublesomeness in wearing the glasses and asthenopia due to a long-time viewing of the picture.
Further, the different sight stereopsis system of the type utilizing stereoscopic video glasses requires a high-speed optical switch capable of perfectly following the right and left images displayed alternately for every 1/60 seconds (one field). A liquid crystal cell is unsatisfactory in the response to the speed.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a stereoscopic picture system capable of providing a clear stereoscopic picture for a plurality of people to see at a time whenever they like without wearing polarizing glasses.
On the other hand, to realize a stereoscopic picture system providing a stereoscopic picture for many people to see from different directions by driving a stereoscopic display panel on the basis of the information of x, y and z coordinates for a three-dimensional subject and obtained through a camera, all the image signals covering the entire sectional area of a subject must be processed. For this reason, the circuits required, such as an operation circuit performing calculations for projecting a three-dimensional subject on a two-dimensional plane, are up-scaled thereby causing an increase in costs and in processing time. Thus, another object of the present invention is to solve such problems and to provide a stereoscopic picture system capable of realizing a high-speed processing with reduced circuit scale and reduced costs.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a stereoscopic display panel capable of displaying a three-dimensional picture directly from the information of a three-dimensional subject.